


Wolves and Daisies

by parttimehuman



Series: Rarepair Galore [26]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Childhood Friends, Field Trip, Flower Crowns, LiolanWeek2020, M/M, No Werewolves, Wolves, Zoo, can you believe???, surprise friends, this is actually super soft and innocent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:35:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22682605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parttimehuman/pseuds/parttimehuman
Summary: When all juniors of Beacon Hills High are supposed to get on the busses home from their field trip to the zoo, one kid is missing. Liam might know who.
Relationships: Liam Dunbar & Nolan, Liam Dunbar/Nolan
Series: Rarepair Galore [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1133369
Comments: 6
Kudos: 33





	Wolves and Daisies

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Liam/Nolan Week Day 4: Lone Wolves
> 
> Enjoy!

“One is missing,” Mrs. Finch says quietly to herself and Coach Finstock before raising her voice to shout for “Attention!” Of course, as she’s standing in front of all students in Beacon Hills High’s junior year, there are more than enough of them not paying attention to their biology teacher at all. 

Coach blows the whistle around his neck aggressively and without consideration for the potential loss of someone’s hearing ability. “Quiet!” He yells at a bunch of students covering their ears. “One of you geniuses is missing, so how about before you get on the bus, you all take a quick look around and make sure all your friends are present!”

Liam looks around. They’re far too many kids for only two teachers to keep everything under control, so the field trip to the zoo was bound to be a disaster, really. If anything, he’s surprised that only one kid seems to be missing as they’re getting back onto the busses they came in, and that no other catastrophes have occurred so far. 

Liam locks eyes with his best friend Mason for a second although they’ve been together all day and already knew the other made it back to the bus. Attached to Mason by the hand is his boyfriend Corey. Next to Corey, Hayden and Theo are continuing their discussion that got interrupted by Coach. Hayden’s girlfriend Gwen is typing on her phone while looking tired. So Liam’s friends are all there. He even checks for his fellow lacrosse team members. If in a slightly different way, they’re his friends too, and they’re all standing close together, apparently not missing anyone. 

Nobody says anything, which is weird, so Liam starts thinking. Who else is there? 

In his mind, Liam goes through his timetable, checking for all of his desk neighbors. He’s pretty sure they’re all there. He tries to imagine the cafetiera and all the kids usually spending their lunch break at one of the tables around him. He doesn’t think any of them are missing either. 

“Seriously?” Coach yells. “If this is too hard for you already you’re going to have a lot of fun with this year’s finals.” 

Theo and Mason roll their eyes simultaneously. Liam has grown to love Coach, but it’s true that the man’s teaching methods are a bit unconventional at times. 

“It’s fine,” says Mrs. Finch, “I have a list with all the students’ names somewhere, just let me find it real quick.” 

Meanwhile, Liam’s brain is still working. Even if all of his closest friends, team members and study buddies are around, he feels like he should know who isn’t, for some reason. 

“Principal Martin expects a report about our field trip, by the way,” Coach bellows, “guess we know who’s writing that one. I don’t need any lone wolves among my students. I need you to stick together, like a team. And for all of you to be on the bus back home because losing a kid during a field trip is never a good look for a teacher, you can believe that.” 

_ Lone wolves. _

Liam looks around, again, this time knowing what he’s looking for, although he has no idea what shirt the kid’s wearing that day or what hairstyle he has at the moment. He’s searching the crowd of students for light blue eyes and a nose covered in freckles, finding no one.

“Coach!” Liam exclaims, trying to interrupt Coach’s rant. He makes his way through to the teachers standing by the front of the bus. “I might know who’s missing,” he declares once he has their attention. “And if I’m right, I’m almost sure I know where to look for them.” 

Mrs. Finch doesn’t seem to be a fan of Liam’s implication that he wants to go looking on his own, but she’s never been Liam’s biggest fan to begin with. Teachers are complicated that way, you show no interest in what they’re teaching and they start mistrusting you immediately. Luckily, Coach Finstock has Liam to thank for his lacrosse team not sucking as much as before Liam’s time. 

Coach looks at the watch around his wrist. “You have twenty minutes, Dunbar. If you’re not back by then I’ll send out the search parties.” 

Liam nods and takes off back towards the zoo, a very specific goal in his mind. Really, it’s stupid that he didn’t think of it sooner. They used to come to the zoo together all the time when they were little, running from one compound to the next, eager to see all the wild animals. Their dads used to have trouble keeping track of them too, but in the end, they always settled for the same spot, getting their juice boxes out of their little backpacks on the same meadow just above the huge fenced area where the wolves lived. 

There, they would spend hours sitting in the grass and watching the animals and dreaming up new worlds and stories. There, their dads would pick them up once the sun started setting. It’s where Liam is running now too, and granted, where he finds Nolan sitting on the ground, backpack at his side, fingers busy making a flower crown out of the daisies growing around him. 

Liam pulls out his phone and checks the time. He’s definitely supposed to get Nolan to come with him and join the others as soon as possible, but Liam decides to sit down next to him instead, plucking a few more daisies and offering them to Nolan. Before their field trip, he wasn’t at the zoo for a couple of years, but he remembers the days well as he’s sitting there, watching the wolves. 

“There are a lot more now than when we were little,” Liam observes. What he should say instead is,  _ We need to get to the bus.  _ Or,  _ The teachers are looking for you.  _ But this is Nolan, and even if they’ve long stopped being inseparable, Liam knows that Nolan sees the world differently. Wolves and daisies are more important to him than school and rules. 

“They’ve had cubs two years in a row now,” Nolan explains. 

All of a sudden it hits Liam that maybe, probably, Nolan hasn’t abandoned the zoo or their tradition like Liam has. 

“You still come here a lot?” 

Liam doesn’t remember when and how he and Nolan met for the first time. They used to live in the same street, their parents had been friends before the two boys were even born. They’d grown up together, almost like brothers. The zoo was a big thing because Nolan chose it, for reasons only known to himself, or maybe not even himself. Playing with him was difficult at times and often frustrating to Liam, because Nolan never focussed on one toy or one game for longer than a couple of minutes and he completely ignored the rules Liam came up with. 

At the zoo, in the grass by the wolves, Nolan has always been calmer. 

“I still have a season ticket,” Nolan replies, “but Mom doesn’t like it when I take the bus this far out of town by myself. And Dad doesn’t like it when I come here instead of school, so not as much as I’d like to.” 

“I didn’t know that.” 

Nolan looks up from his almost finished flower crown and curiously into Liam’s eyes. Liam knows what that look means. Of course he didn’t know what Nolan does in his free time these days. Years ago, Liam’s parents split up, his father left town and he and his mother moved into a smaller, more affordable apartment that wasn’t in Nolan’s street anymore. 

Liam used to ride his bike to the old neighborhood, to Nolan. They got into middle school and Liam started playing lacrosse, Liam became friends with Mason and Hayden, and then more things kept happening, Liam’s life changed, Liam grew up, developed new interests, met new people, got more invested in sports, started reading about history, spent his weekends having sleepovers with Mason and Theo.

Looking back, Liam doesn’t really know where exactly along the way he lost Nolan. All he knows is that now, he’s looking at a different boy, a boy he doesn’t know like he used to. That he wishes he knew the story behind the scar on the back of Nolan’s hand or what the quote printed on his shirt is a reference to. 

“I can come with you, you know,” Liam offers quietly. “I’m definitely also expected to attend school from Monday to Friday, but we can go on weekends. What do you think?” 

“You don’t need to comfort me,” Nolan says simply. 

“What?” 

“People tend to do that. They see me sitting somewhere by myself and then they come talk to me because they think I’m lonely. They spend time with me although they think I’m weird. They introduce me to their friends and then everyone is super fake because they can tell I’m not like them but they don’t want to hurt my feelings. But I’m used to being different. And I like being alone. I don’t need you to have pity on me or whatever. You can continue to spend your weekends with your friends and I can watch the wolves on my own. I’m not sad or lonely because of it.” 

There used to be a time when Nolan would hide for days because some kid had called him a weirdo. When he would cry because nobody except Liam wanted to be his friend. Every single time, Liam was so angry at the world that he felt like exploding. If he wants to be angry at anyone now, it has to be himself. 

“What if it’s not you, but me?” He asks. “Maybe I’m the one who’s sad and lonely.” 

Liam remembers the tiny, skinny kid Nolan used to be. He’s still skinny but pretty tall now. His hair is much darker, not as light blond anymore. His face has changed, too, has gotten sharper, the chubby cheeks are gone. He seems more confident, more controlled, but Nolan is still Nolan, or else he wouldn’t be sitting by the wolves knotting flower stems together while all juniors are waiting for him. He just wishes he had seen everything that happened in between. Wishes he had been there every day along the way. 

“I don’t know if I believe you,” Nolan says. 

“That’s okay,” Liam tells him, “I haven’t proven myself particularly trustworthy, have I?”

Nolan shakes his head. “Guess not.” 

“How about you come home with me for dinner tonight?” Liam proposes. “I’m sure Mom would love to see you. And then we can plan our next trip to the wolves.” 

Nolan bites his lip, which is another thing he’s always done while thinking. It’s why his lips have never not been chapped and red and a little swollen. 

“Fine,” he finally says, “but if you were planning on playing any video games, I have to warn you, I’ve become pretty good at them.” 

Liam laughs. Then he stands up and holds his hand out for Nolan to take it. “I don’t know if I believe you.” 

Now it’s Nolan’s turn to laugh. “Fair, but you will once I kick your ass.” He doesn’t take Liam’s hand to help him get up, but when they stand in front of each other, he lifts his arms and places the flower crown he’s made on top of Liam’s head. 

They’re both smiling, but Liam understands that the moment has something heavy to it. He’s been given another chance, and fucking it up isn’t an option. 

“Uhm, hey, by the way, it’s possible that you have to write the report about the field trip that Mrs. Martin wants,” Liam mentions as they start walking, trying to prepare Nolan at least a little before Coach Finstock gets to him. 

“That’s okay,” Nolan says, “I’ll just write down everything I know about wolves and they’ll never ask me for a report again. Wolves and daisies.” 

Liam laughs and lets their shoulders touch as they walk. “Excellent plan,” he says. “Wolves and daisies.” 


End file.
